List of missions to minor planets is a listing of spaceflight missions to minor planets, which are category of astronomical body that excludes planets, moons and comets, but orbit the Sun. Most missions to minor planets have been to asteroids or dwarf planets.
Spacecraft visits to minor planets have mostly been flybys, and have ranged from dedicated missions to incidental flybys and targets of opportunity for spacecraft that have already completed their missions. The first spacecraft to visit an asteroid was Pioneer 10, which flew past an unnamed asteroid on 2 August 1972; a distant incidental encounter while the probe was en route to Jupiter. The first dedicated mission was NEAR Shoemaker, which was launched in February 1996, and entered orbit around 433 Eros in February 2000, having first flown past 253 Mathilde. NEAR was also the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid, surviving what was intended to be an impact with Eros at 20:01 on 12 February 2001 at the planned end of its mission. As a result of its unexpected survival, the spacecraft's mission was extended until 1 March to allow data to be collected from the surface.
Missions There have been thirty-three overall missions towards minor planets, with four of them being flyby missions that were not intended to explore minor planets, marked in grey background.
Many minor planets are in two domains: Asteroid belt, between Kuiper belt, between
Mission Spacecraft Launch date Carrier rocket Operator Destination Mission type Outcome – Pioneer 10 Pioneer 10 Atlas SLV-3C Centaur-D Star-37E NASA Unnamed asteroid Flyby 307 Nike Distant incidental flybys en route to Jupiter; closest approaches occurred on 2 August 1972 and 2 December 1972, respectively, with a distance of . – Galileo project Galileo STS-34 / IUS NASA Flyby Incidental flybys en route to Jupiter; flyby of 951 Gaspra occurred on 29 October 1991 with closest approach of at 22:37 UTC; flyby of 243 Ida occurred on 28 August 1993 with closest approach of at 16:51:59 UTC; discovered Dactyl 1 DSPSE Clementine Titan II(23)G NASA Flyby Attitude control failure; failed to leave geocentric orbit after first phase of mission exploring the Moon. Flyby had been planned for August 1994 2 Discovery 1 NEAR Shoemaker Delta II 7925 NASA Flyby Orbiter Closest approach to Mathilde was at 12:56 UTC on 27 June 1997. Three days before arrival at Eros the orbiter aborted a burn resulting in failure to enter orbit, instead flew past at at 18:41:23 on 23 December 1998. Insertion reattempted successfully on 14 February 2000. Impacted asteroid at 20:01 on 12 February 2001 at end of mission, but survived impact and continued to operate on surface until 1 March. – Cassini-Huygens Cassini Titan IV(401)B Centaur-T NASA Flyby Distant incidental flyby en route to Saturn; closest approach 1.5 million kilometres (0.9 million miles) at 09:58 UTC on 23 January 2000 3 New Millennium 1 Deep Space 1 Delta II 7326 NASA Wilson–Harrington is catalogued as both a comet and an asteroid Flyby Spacecraft was unable to reach Wilson–Harrington due to ion engine operation being suspended while a problem with the probe's star tracker was investigated. Braille flyby added to mission following loss of ability to reach Wilson–Harrington. Closest approach at 04:46 UTC on 29 July 1999. Intended to pass within but this was not achieved due to a computer failure; poor-quality images returned as a result. 4 Discovery 4 Stardust Delta II 7426 NASA Flyby Closest approach of at 04:50:20 UTC on 2 November 2002. 5 Hayabusa (formerly: MUSES-C) Hayabusa M-V JAXA Orbiter/Lander/Sample returner MINERVA Lander First asteroid sample return mission. Reached Itokawa on 12 September 2005, landed briefly on 19 and 25 November, collected samples, missed return window due to communications outage, finally returned to Earth on 13 June 2010. MINERVA deployable lander was deployed from Hayabusa on 12 November 2005 but was accidentally released while Hayabusa was moving away from Itokawa; reached escape velocity and drifted off into heliocentric orbit 6 Cornerstone 3 Rosetta Ariane 5G+ ESA Flyby Closest approach of Šteins at on 5 September 2008. Closest approach of Lutetia at on 10 July 2010. The spacecraft also carried the Philae lander, which was to land on 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in 2014. 7 Discovery 7 Deep Impact Delta II 7426 NASA Flyby Extended mission (EPOXI), flyby was expected in 2020, but communication with the spacecraft was lost in August 2013. 8 New Frontiers 1 New Horizons Atlas V 551 NASA Incidental flyby and its five moons. Flyby 486958 Arrokoth Closest approach of APL at at 04:05 UTC on 13 June 2006. First probe to flyby Pluto, on 14 July 2015. Flyby of Arrokoth occurred on 1 January 2019. 9 Discovery 9 Dawn Delta II 7925H NASA Orbiter Orbited Vesta from 16 July 2011 to 5 September 2012, before departing for Ceres. Arrived at Ceres in 2015. 10 Chang'e 2 Chang'e 2 Long March 3C CNSA Flyby Flyby on 13 December 2012, closest approach . 11 Hayabusa2 Hayabusa2 H-IIA 202 JAXA Orbiter/Lander/Sample Returner DCAM-3 Orbiter SCI impactor Impactor HIBOU Lander OWL MINERVA II-2 MASCOT Hayabusa2♯ 98943 Torifune Flyby Orbiter/Lander PROCYON Flyby Hayabusa-2 arrived in 2018, landed in February and July 2019; sample returned to Earth on 5 December 2020 UTC. HIBOU and OWL were both deployed on 21 September 2018. MINERVA-II was deployed on 2 October 2019; it had failed prior to deployment but was deployed anyway to observe the effects of gravity on it as it descended to the surface. MASCOT was deployed on 3 October 2018; operated for 17 hours. DCAM-3 and SCI Impactor were deployed on 5 April 2019; DCAM-3 observed SCI impact. PROCYON flyby of had been planned for 2016; cancelled due to ion engine failure in heliocentric orbit. 12 New Frontiers 3 OSIRIS-REx / OSIRIS-APEX Atlas V 411 NASA 101955 Bennu Orbiter/Sample Returner 99942 Apophis Orbiter/Lander Successfully collected sample of Bennu on 20 October 2020 and returned the sample to Earth on 24 September 2023. For its extended mission called OSIRIS-APEX, the spacecraft is now en route to encounter Apophis on 8 April 2029. 13 Discovery 13 Lucy Atlas V 401 NASA 152830 Dinkinesh Flyby 52246 Donaldjohanson 3548 Eurybates 15094 Polymele 11351 Leucus 21900 Orus 617 Patroclus Closest approach of Dinkinesh at at 16:54 UTC on 1 November 2023. Flyby of Donaldjohanson on 20 April 2025, Eurybates on 12 August 2027, Polymele on 15 September 2027, Leucus on 18 April 2028, Orus on 11 November 2028 and Patroclus on 2 March 2033. 14 SSE 1 DART Falcon 9 NASA Dimorphos Impactor LICIACube ASI 65803 Didymos system Flyby The U.S. component of AIDA. DART impacted 23:14 UTC 26 September 2022. LICIACube separated from DART on 11 September 2022 and on flew by about 3 minutes after DART's impact. 15 NEA Scout NEA Scout SLS Block 1 NASA 2020 GE Flyby Spacecraft was to perform a series of lunar flybys before targeting asteroid in September 2023, but after launch contact was lost and later the mission was declared as a failure. 16 Discovery 14 Psyche Falcon Heavy NASA 16 Psyche Orbiter Arrives in August 2029. 17 Hera Hera Falcon 9 ESA65803 Didymos system Orbiter Milani Orbiter Juventas Orbiter The European component of AIDA. Arrives in December 2026 according to current plans. 18 Brokkr-2 Odin Falcon 9 Block 5 AstroForge Flyby was expected to reach , a suspected M-type near-Earth object, in December 2025, but failed after launch. 19 Tianwen-2 Tianwen-2 Long March 3B CNSA 469219 Kamoʻoalewa Sample return Exploring the co-orbital near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa and collecting samples of the its regolith.
Statistics Major milestones Legend
† First to achieve + Asteroid belt Country/Agency Flyby Orbit Impact Touchdown Lander Hopper Rover Sample return United States Galileo, (Gaspra) 1991 † NEAR Shoemaker, (Eros) 2000 † NEAR Shoemaker, (Eros) 2001 † OSIRIS-REx, 2020 — — — OSIRIS-REx, 2023 Japan — — SCI, (Ryugu) 2014 Hayabusa, (Itokawa) 2005 † — HIBOU and OWL, (Ryugu) 2018 † — Hayabusa, (Itokawa) 2010 † ESA Rosetta, (Šteins) 2008 Rosetta, (Churyumov–Gerasimenko) 2014 — — Philae, (Churyumov–Gerasimenko) 2014 † — — — China Chang'e 2, (Toutatis) 2012 — — — — — — — Italy LICIACube, (Didymos system) 2022 — — — — — — —
+ Kuiper belt Country/Agency Flyby Orbit United States New Horizons, (Pluto) 2015 † —
Future missions
Mission Spacecraft Launch date Carrier rocket Operator Destination Mission type DESTINY+ DESTINY+ H3 JAXA 3200 Phaethon Flyby Planned arrival in 2030. Ramses Ramses H3 ESA JAXA 99942 Apophis Flyby Don Quijote Farinella ESA Space Safety Programme mission. MBR Explorer MBR Explorer H3 UAESA 10253 Westerwald Flyby 623 Chimaera 13294 Rockox 88055 Ghaf 23871 Ousha 59980 Moza MBR Lander 269 Justitia Orbiter/lander Planned flybys of six asteroids between 2030 and 2033, then orbiting Justitia in October 2034 and landing there in May 2035.
See also List of minor planets and comets visited by spacecraft Timeline of Solar System exploration List of missions to Venus List of missions to the Moon List of missions to Mars List of missions to the outer planets List of missions to comets
Notes
References